1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the finishing of elongated, flexible substrates, and more particularly to the surface finishing of such substrates as chain.
2. Prior Art
Many surface finishing operations such as deburring, burnishing, descaling, cleaning and the like can be conducted expeditiously in a vibratory finishing machine. Such a machine includes a movably mounted receptacle and a drive system for vibrating the receptacle. One such machine is described in the referenced Finishing Machine Patent. Workpieces to be finished are loaded into the receptacle together with finishing media. A finishing action is imparted to the workpieces by vibrating the receptacle so that the mixture of workpieces and media is effectively maintained in a fluid state with smaller components of the mixture dispersed between larger components for impact. Impulse forces imparted to the mixture by the vibrating tub cause repeated impacts among the mixture components and cause the mixture to churn in a predictable manner as a finishing process is carried out.
Many elongated, flexible substrates require surface finishing to remove burrs, enhance their appearance, and/or ready them for the application of protective coatings. Steel chain, for example, needs to be descaled, smoothed and cleaned after its links have been welded and heat treated. Once the chain link surfaces are suitably smooth and clean, they are usually plated or otherwise protectively coated.
While vibratory finishing machines have been used to effect finishing operations on such elongated, flexible substrates as chain, only batch-type finishing operations have met with success. Lengths of the substrate are typically tied with wire to form bundles, and the bundles are finished one or a few at a time. Attempts made to devise a system that will permit the continuous finishing of elongated, flexible substrates such as chain have not met with success.